


Nine Lives

by Moonlight91



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Christmas in July 2019 (Once Upon a Time), Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 07:02:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19901713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlight91/pseuds/Moonlight91
Summary: After three years of working in a bunker, a chance accident leads Dr. Belle French to work with Dr. Gold in solving the zombie outbreak.





	Nine Lives

**Author's Note:**

> For the Rumbelle Christmas in July 2019 Ifelldownagain who wanted to see Zombies and thunderstorms. :)

Dr. Belle French glanced back at her watch then back towards the clock hanging on the wall within the underground laboratory. Twenty minutes left until curfew began and she already could hear the alarm system setting up as the gates were beginning to close leaving the impetuous geneticist annoyed at the possibility of having to wander the bunker unescorted once again. She started writing down her notes whilst looking at the date in a melancholy acceptance.

**_Three years, five weeks, seven days, nine hours and eleven minutes_** had passed since Regina Mills randomly selected her and five other scientists as part of a team to find a cure to save the human race from the zombie apocalypse after a mysterious outbreak had caused an outbreak several years back.

There was never any confirmation as to the origins of the outbreak, some say it was due to infected animals released from laboratories by activists into the wild spreading the disease through airborne pathogens, others say it came from poisoning within the water supply while the more devout came to the conclusion it had been a sign of the end times. Whether the outbreak was caused by human negligence or divine karma, it became certain to many the death were now walking the earth and there was a high probability many would become infected because of the exposure with the creatures which allowed many different regions to submit to military control with communication nearly becoming impossible unless they were able to gain influence amongst the personnel.

One such person was Regina Mills, a shrew heiress in her early forties who within the first few days of the outbreak becoming wide spread, announced to the world she will be in the forefront to discover a cure. Looking back, Bell felt honored she was chosen for such a task as growing up in Storybrooke, ME never allowed her to fit in due to her obsession with books rather than accepting a mundane life. She first met Regina during an internship at Mills’ Pharmaceuticals where the older woman became so impressed with the hard work from Belle; Regina quickly took the young student under her wing securing her a position with the company after she graduated along with an office mainly suited for scientists with higher credential than a recent Ph.D. graduate. It became quickly apparent she was mainly used as a pet by Regina to bolster her image as fairy godmother to promising talent as many of her colleagues looked down at her even after nearly five years of proving herself where the news of the outbreak gave Belle the justification resign from Mills Pharmaceuticals until Regina let her know she was selected from a random lottery her family had placed to secure several other scientists to solve the matter.

When Belle went to the bunker close to what she had assumed was Regina’s Winter Palace meeting the other scientists Victor Whale, Rose Tink, Tiana Grenouille Elsa Arendalle and William Scarlet along with Regina’s older sister Zelena who treated the meeting as social get together with a cocktail party on their first night. She believed there was a chance they would easily solve this within a year, then another year and another went by with many of the group began to lose their morale with the daily routine consisting of working all day on the captured zombies used for the guinea pigs to test out the different serums. One incident occurred when Dr. Arendalle locking herself in her room for nearly two days after failing to help a young girl who later on, the platinum blonde microbiologist revealed had a resemblance to her younger sister. When Regina heard of the incident, she placed the scientist into the supervision of her bunkmates refusing to let her work with the zombies any longer switching her position with Belle. As it did become heartbreaking to watch her colleague slowly lose mind, it was having her new position Belle quickly realized Regina no longer was receiving the funding as she had in the past due to the low amount of security now focused on the zombies and some of the scientists now resorting to arming themselves. 

Finishing up the remainder of her notes, Belle closed her book sullen over her uneventful week as the recent batch of serum samples had not provided the results Belle had assume would have worked for the zombies. She grabbed her burgundy coat and locked the door when before Belle could have a chance to react, the lights were shut off.

“Hello?” the brunette shouted rummaging through her pockets to find her keyring containing a flashlight. Turning on the light only to become annoyed the light itself was not bright as she had hoped within the cramped dark walls. 

“Hello? Is anyone here?” She continued shouting.

“The lights are off and I am trying to get back. Hello!”

She shouted once again annoyed to find no one heard her. Belle sighed at the thought of heading to her quarters with dim lighting as walking through the bunker without the proper personnel could be difficult. As Belle continued walking, she already began suspecting any personnel or her colleagues were probably far gone as she continued shouting and placing as much light as she could in the hopes Belle was not running around in circles when all of a sudden, Belle came to the realization the only noises she could hear were the sounds of her voice.

Followed by a whispering growl echoing the walls, Belle froze in fear leading her to drop her flashlight. The sounds were loud enough to leave Belle so startled she needed to cover mouth so not herself breathing heavily.

_Impossible, the door could not have been opened or there would have been a breach alarm._

Belle slowly walked up against the walls whilst looking at her directions until she noticed there was a door in the way with lights on in the other side in which she saw it was the quarters of Dr. Gold, another one of the scientists who mainly kept to himself but had enough influence with both the Mills sisters and several other factions based on the rumors Belle heard through the bunker.

During the past three years, Belle only spoke to Dr. Gold a few instances mainly introducing herself on her first day and exchanging pleasantries when it became clear the man was not willing to meet her at least halfway, Belle only resorted to waving him a good day in the hopes he would have acknowledged her back just to be polite. Overtime, it became clear he would stay in his quarters only speaking to anyone when it was necessary, but even the event was rare with rumors swirling about his life became the norm and office gossip for the brief period of time. Not willing to risk another second, Belle knocked until she kept hearing the noising coming closer to her direction where she exceeded to bang the door louder.

The door opened for Belle to find Dr. Gold standing over her with an annoyed disposition wearing black dress pants and dark blue shirt with the first three buttons undone with the black tie in the stages of being unknotted.

“Do you have a good reason to bother me at this hour Dr. French because I can’t seem to remember your upcoming visit?” He placed his fingers over the door tilting his body in the opposite direction when Belle began moving in an effort to calm her nerves as she struggled to catch her breath.

“I am so sorry to bother you Dr. Gold.” She stated heavy breathing. “I need your assistance or perhaps a pistol, please I am in a hurry.”

She continue turning around, surprised she was no longer hearing any more noises when she turned around to see Dr. Gold staring directly at her with a scowl of annoyance.

“You have come to the wrong place dearie; I am rather busy at the moment.” He stated. “Perhaps you can ask one of your other little friends to help you because I don’t see what assistance I could provide for you.”

Belle’s jaw nearly widened when she quickly composed herself surprised at the rude state of her colleague when she moved slightly to notice Dr. Gold was doing the same. “I apologize for you ruining your beauty sleep or _whoever_ is there.” Belle could tell her tone was coming off as snide, but she was past caring. “If it pleases you to know, I was coming back from the lab and heard a noise coming from this direction and I wanted to be sure if the contamination unit wasn’t opened which would be asking for a death wish if I didn’t go in there without some kind of weapon.”

“I can assure you Dr. French, the contamination unit is completely sealed off and what you heard is a result of overworked exhaustion stemming from all of us living here for so long.” Just when Gold was ready to slam the door into Belle’s face, she quickly placed her body against leaving the rude man struggling to push her off when Belle became startled at hearing the noise again only time, it appeared to be coming from Gold’s quarters.

She glanced at Gold who froze at her realization when she struggled to look past his head only for Gold to keep blocking her in each direction.

“I know you heard that.” She continued struggling to push the door against him. “What is it you don’t want me to see?”

“It is none of your concern. Can you please leave?”

The desperation in Gold’s face as he continued struggling to push the door away from Belle was not apparent to her as she pushed back when she heard the noise again only to catch a small glimpse into the room from the left to find a small set of feet followed by another set of growls. She pushed herself away not leaving Gold the opportunity to close the door as he stared back at the shocked expression from Belle’s face then towards his room in which the origin of the growls became clear to Belle when she was staring at a young boy who must have been no more than seven.

“Paaapppaaaa” the zombie growled according to what Belle had assumed she heard. Belle worked with zombies every day and this boy appeared to be in a state she had never seen, while the boy was dressed up in ghost patterned pajamas and his hair nearly groomed, his face was in various state of decomposition with pupils still intact but his jaw nearly gone.

“It’s okay Bae, nothing is going on.”

Gold began tending to the boy hugging him as the child began waving its arms towards where Belle was ready to attack the boy until she saw he was wearing gloves and socks allowing Gold minor protection.

It was not uncommon for people to keep zombies in their household as many would not have the stomach to kill a loved one, however the sentimentality had been one of the reasons many outbreaks occurred in larger compounds leading to places such as New York to have placed soldiers into the homes of residence and commit the act if it ever became necessary. However, what Belle was witnessing had not appeared to be sentimental as the boy showed consciousness by responding to Gold’s pleas, which was another trait Belle had never believed to been real until she saw it for her own eyes.

“Is he alive or dead?” Belle asked realizing what she said was out loud causing Gold to turn from the boy and acknowledge his guest who closed the door behind her focusing on the young child. She never look forward to seeing the newer zombies brought in as sometimes they would include children who were usually the priority of Dr. Whale or Dr. Tink which never made the situation better for anyone as they would be placed in a state of melancholy for nearly a week for the rest to pick up the pace with Dr. Scarlet talking about his own family to lighten the tension but unknowingly continuing to increase the depression amongst them. 

“Bae-, _Baedan_ is still there.” Gold quietly said unable to look back at Belle. “At first I thought it was a cold until he hands turned cold with his body slowly deteriorating. He actually can hear me, sometimes talk and is able to put clothes on without any assistance. You know the other zombies are unable to that.”

Belle walked closer to the child allowing Gold to move further as she placed her hand towards the boy who began extending his. She looked back at Gold who did not appear to be nervous but Belle wanted to project herself onto him as she went to the child kneeling to his level finding him to have a calm demeanor.

“He doesn’t think you will harm him. Bae always has a tendency to trust people better than I, suppose it is just childhood innocence.”

Belle smiled back at both of them extending her hand to shake the boy’s. “Hello Baedan, my name is Belle. I work with your papa and I am just here for a cup of tea.” She looked back at Gold who quickly got the message as he went to get up when Baedan placed his hands towards Belle hugging her leaving Belle to flinch before Gold had a chance to react.

“It is his bedtime.” He spoke to Belle then turning his attention to Baedan. “Come on Bae, time for bed, I need to speak with Dr. French.”

Belle smiled back the boy who smiled back at her. “I’ll come see you tomorrow, I promise.” She looked back at Gold who said nothing turning his attention back to Bae and coming back out the bedroom ten minutes later only to emerge back into the kitchenette gathering two glasses and a bottle of whiskey from under the sink.

“You could just sit down instead of gawking. I can assure you, Bae is asleep and he is the only thing you heard tonight.”

“Does Regina know you have him here?”

Gold handed Belle the amber liquor as he quickly drank it with her following suit refusing to ignore the burning sensation from the back of her throat.

“Unlike the rest of you, Regina called me personally regarding the opportunity. She knew I would do anything to save my son even if it meant I might have delaying the inevitable, but there are some instances where his complexion is back to normal even eating normally. You saw him acknowledging you and I can’t have the others know about him or risk a panic especially since the morale of the bunker is becoming scarce every day.”

A thought struck Belle when she stared back at the door and the desperation of her colleague where she probably was going to get shot after making the suggestion. “How about we work together to find the cure?” she proclaimed leaving Gold laughing.

“You must be joking Dr. French, I work here only to make sure Baedan doesn’t get out and your friends will notice why you are disappearing so much.”

“I am completely serious. I have been going through my reports this week and the serums haven’t been doing well but there some who were responding in the beginning. Perhaps I concluded the data wrong but I know you can help where a fresh pair of eyes would do both of us good.”

Gold looked at her with suspicion when Belle refusing to budge.

“Fine, but you will have to come here at nights to avoid suspicion and I want all of your past notes.”

Belle picked up another glass of the whiskey happy to see there was a glimpse of hope from Dr. Gold as they raised their glasses striking their deal.


End file.
